Construction on the 140,000 square foot
facility began in May of 1997 on a 28 acre site located in the Dublin
Industrial Park in Dublin, Va. Brown &
Root Construction Company was contracted to build the facility at a cost of
$28.4 million dollars with the State of Virginia sharing half of the cost
associated with the construction. The jail was built utilizing pre-cast
concrete structures that were manufactured by the Tindall Company of
Petersburg, Virginia. These units were built off-site and
trucked to the Dublin site. This process of using pre-cast concrete units
accelerated the construction phase.

The newly built regional jail housed its first prisoners on
April 27, 1999. The initial inmate count
after all of the local facilities were closed was 248 men and women.
Since that time the inmate population has doubled and includes federal
inmates as well as inmates from outside jurisdictions. The new
building houses administrative offices, a magistrate's office, public and
professional visiting areas, kitchen, laundry, library, classrooms, medical
unit, basketball court,
two contained outdoor recreation yards, and a secure vehicle sallyport for
loading and unloading prisoners.

The New River Valley Regional Jail utilizes state-of-the-art
technology throughout its facility. Each control room is
equipped to control everything in a housing unit from cell doors and
individual lights to telephones and televisions. Every main area of
the interior and exterior is monitored by security cameras. The Booking
Department has the capability to take digital fingerprints and transmit the
information to a central data bank. It also has the equipment
necessary to conduct video arraignments with the courts of member
jurisdictions thus reducing the need for inmates to leave the building.